High School's a Battlefield
by ovoxogang
Summary: [AU] What would happen if the Hunger Games characters went to modern-day high school? Fights, friendships, love, and more to come.


**High School's a Battlefield**

**So I decided to start this story about the Hunger Games characters in modern-day high school. I still don't know if I'm continuing it, so leave feedback please! This is just an experimental chapter, I know the beginning is boring-please bear with me.**

**(Disclaimer: I do not own ****The Hunger Games****.)**

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_**Chapter 1: A New Start**_

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**Katniss Everdeen**

I wake up in a bad mood.

First off, I get out of bed to trip on a sleeping Buttercup, my sister's cat, and the little monster decides to scratch my calf. I go to the bathroom to clean the cut when I trip again on my sister's pink worn-out slippers, and fall straight onto the cold floor. I think I'll get a humongo-sized bruise on my forehead by tomorrow.

I walk back to my bedroom and change into faded flared jeans and my brand new teal shirt my mother bought for me. I trudge down the stairs and pour myself a cup of coffee, but then Prim's stupid cat pounces on the table, knocking my cup of coffee onto me, ruining my whole outfit. Swearing my head off, I run back upstairs to change into an uglier, older pair of jeans and a plain black t-shirt. I don't have time to look for other clothes. Then I turn to trip flat on my face, and I look over to see my phone charger tangled around my right foot. I untangle myself and hurry back downstairs, smoothing my side bangs down as I go.

I glance at the clock in my living room. _Great,_ I think. _I'm going to be late for school._

Not to mention I miss my bus.

I run to the bus stop, hoping to catch the next bus that stops. Hopefully I won't be too late; I've never gotten a tardy before, and it's my first day at a new school. Dammit.

I am now a junior at Silverlake High School, home of the Fighting Trojans. Silverlake High School is near the heart of Central Los Angeles, just south of Silver Lake and southeast of Hollywood Hills and Griffith Park, a huge national forest. Behind these places are huge groups of more national parks and forests. So basically, we live in one of the biggest cities in California but also near a huge rural area as well. I would say I have the best of both worlds, but I actually hate living in a big city. I'm more of a nature-loving kind of girl.

While I'm on the bus, I think of how my first day is going to go. Will I be popular? I doubt it. I'm more of a leave-me-alone person, and my mom calls me antisocial all the time. The only person younger than twenty-one that I like at all is my twelve-year-old sister, Prim. Yup, I can tell I'm going to have a huge social life.

When I get to school, I head to the main office to get my tardy slip. I remember the way from the Open House Tour for all incoming students a few weeks ago.

"You're late," Mrs. Trinket, the dean of students, says to me in a stern voice as I walk into the office.

"Sorry, Mrs…" I glance at the platinum name tag on the woman's desk. "Mrs. Trinket."

"Your name?"

"Katniss Everdeen."

She types something, my name probably, into her computer. "Ah, you're new here?"

"Yes," I mutter.

She shakes her head with a _tsk, tsk, tsk_ and raises her eyebrows. "Late for your first day of school. Not very impressive at all, Miss Everdeen." Her strong British accent and her eye-popping magenta suit, as well as her huge nest for hair, makes the woman look stern.

She hands me a tardy slip, as well as a packet of paper. "That includes your class schedule, a map of the grounds, and the student handbook, which is _mandatory_ reading. Go along, now."

She shoos me away and I leave, finding my way to my first class.

Gym. I sigh in relief. I have a feeling this will be one of my easier classes, unless we're lifting weights or something. I'm pretty athletic, seeing as back in Montana I was part of a teen recreation group where we did things like hiking, archery, and kayaking.

I head into the locker rooms and grab a pair of gym shorts from my coach. I change and put my stuff into an empty locker. I head back into the gym.

My coach tells me we're playing volleyball. I used to play volleyball once a week at the recreation center back home. Shouldn't be that bad.

It isn't, except for the fact that everyone knows each other and the class is like a mini reunion with everybody reconnecting after summer break. I grimace with annoyance. After class, I head outside and into the main building for Trigonometry.

The only empty seat is next to a red-haired girl near the front. I sit down and take out a blank notebook.

My teacher hands everyone textbooks. I start looking through the pages and I can only think, _This class is going to be so easy._

The teacher, Mr. Boggs, gives out worksheets. "Everyone read Lesson One and find a partner to answer the worksheet problems. Shouldn't be too hard. Get to work and don't be too noisy."

I glance around to find almost everyone has already partnered up. I look at the red-haired girl next to me, who is working by herself, and see she is already on the third problem.

I clear my throat. "Wanna be partners?"

The girl shrugs.

"My name's Katniss."

"Finch."

"Yo, Foxface!" Some guy calls from behind us. "Wanna give us some answers?"

"Fuck off, Cato," Finch says in a bored tone. I turn around to see this huge big buff blond guy, probably Cato, sigh in mock disappointment. "C'mon man, chill for a second, would ya?"

"Yeah, Foxface. Why don't you be nice for a change?" A ridiculously gorgeous blond girl sitting next to Cato chirps.

Finch doesn't say anything. They eventually turn away, snorting with laughter.

We both keep working. The only time she tries to talk to me is to ask me what I got for a harder problem near the bottom of the page. The only time I try to talk to her was to ask for help, too. I guess, even though she is a girl of no words, that Finch is officially on my good side. We get our work done, she isn't mean to me, and the silence is comfortable.

English class is a breeze. We get into groups and two girls approach me right away – one named Madge, and one named Delly.

"I love English," Madge says. "It's just so…_interesting_. Especially Shakespeare."

"No way," I say.

"Shut up," she giggles. Delly laughs quietly.

I like Delly. She seems really nice. I'm not sure about Madge, although she doesn't seem so bad.

After the bell rings, Madge comes up to me again. "After fourth period we have lunch. What class do you have next?"

"Um," I glance at my now crumpled schedule. "History."

"Meet me outside that class," she says. "You can sit with us." She smiles.

"Thanks," I say gratefully. It would be great not to spend my first day of school alone, no matter how hard I find it to get along with other human beings.

History passes fast. Soon enough the bell rings and I find Madge outside my classroom door. We walk to the cafeteria entrance and open the double doors.

I've never seen a bigger crowd of people. This place is like, overflowing. Literally.

"So…where do we sit?" I ask, unsure.

Madge zigzags in between tables like a pro, dodging every obstacle including fallen chairs, thrown food, people on the ground, you get the idea. I can barely keep up with her.

"We sit here," she says, as if presenting a project. At the table are two girls and two boys. One girl kind of resembles me, pale with dark hair and grey eyes, while the other is a little chubby with blond frizzy hair and I recognize her as Delly. One boy has, like the first girl, dark hair and grey eyes with light-colored skin, while the other boy is a lot taller, with darker skin, dark hair and, again, grey eyes. He's more buff, too.

"Katniss Everdeen, meet Leevy and Reuben, who are siblings, and Gale."

"Nice to meet you all," I say, not knowing if I really mean it.

"Everdeen?" Reuben, the pale boy, says. "Is your mother, by any chance, a doctor?"

"Actually, yes. Why?"

"Mrs. Everdeen is my doctor. She once mentioned she had a daughter my age. Nice to see you."

"Oh, cool. You too."

We sit down and eat. I didn't pack a lunch this morning, so Delly gives me half her sandwich and some grapes. Leevy gives me a bag of Ruffles.

Leevy and Delly seem nice enough, but Gale isn't really talking to me. He'll talk to Reuben and Madge, and sometimes Delly, but not once did he speak to me. Maybe he's antisocial like I am. Ha.

All of a sudden, I hear two loud bangs from the entrance where Madge and I came in.

It is like something out of a movie. When a group of kids enter the cafeteria, it's like it is in slow motion. People call out to them, wave to them, stare at them. The kids say hi or nod to the people they like, the girls with their hair flowing behind them like they're in front of a fan (in slow motion) and the guys looking like they want to fist-pump their buff chests. The girls are insanely gorgeous and the boys are so hot (as the saying goes) you could cook eggs on them.

Leevy sees me staring at them. "They are a force to be reckoned with," she says, nodding in their direction. Then she rolls her eyes. "The guys are overly-popular football players who obsess over the overly-peppy slash bitchy cheerleaders and the girls are overly-peppy slash bitchy cheerleaders who drool over the overly-popular football players." I snort a laugh at that. "That tall blond one, with the green eyes, that's Glimmer Carner. She's the most gorgeous girl alive. And she uses that to her advantage. The short girl with the black hair and freckles is Clove Sevina. She's a total bitch who thinks she's too good for the rest of us."

Glimmer blows a kiss to some guy as she buys her food Then she links arms with a tall blond boy I recognize as Cato, the boy who was bothering Finch during math class. Clove gives another girl a death glare as she gets in line behind the blond couple.

"Well, I see what you mean," I say. I didn't care before, but now I'm curious. "What about the boys?"

"Well, the one with Glimmer? The tall, insanely hot buff guy? That's Cato Larek. He's basically the guy version of Clove, only nastier. The guy behind them, with the brown hair, is Marvel Malone. He's obsessed with football and sports, more than the other guys are. Then, the best for last –" she pauses dramatically – "is Finnick Odair. He's Silverlake's football quarterback-"

"A heartthrob," Madge interrupts dreamily.

Leevy rolls her eyes. "The only bad thing about him is that he's crazy for this weird girl that no one talks to. I mean, that's what everyone says. I've talked to Annie, though, and she's super nice. And she has the _best_ red hair I've ever seen."

I raise my eyebrows. "Wow," is all I say.

"Yep. And they sit with the senior versions of them too. Gloss, Cashmere, Brutus, and Enobaria. Sometimes Johanna sits with them as well. Look, they're all sitting over there." Leevy points discreetly.

Right now, the girls are doing some kind of cheer on two tables the guys moved next to each other. Glimmer calls out, "Remember everyone, pep rally after school – don't miss it! Go Trojans!" She smiles, practically making angels fly out of heaven. People cheer and the girls jump off the tables.

"Do you go to the pep rallies?" I ask.

"Yeah, mostly because my mom can't pick up Reuben and me 'till five," Leevy says. "I don't have much of a social life, but I might as well try." She laughs dryly.

"I do. I have a few friends outside the people at this table, you know," Madge says sarcastically. "Gale and Delly come with me too."

"It doesn't sound . . . . that bad," I say. I cannot believe the words just came out of my mouth. I'm not exactly a social person.

Madge's eyebrows go up high on her forehead. "Really? You don't seem like the pep rally type."

"I'm not."

"So you don't want to go?" Reuben says.

"I wouldn't mind going," I say, evading his question.

"Do you want to go or not?" Gale turns to me, exasperated.

I hesitate. Yeah, I normally wouldn't go, but what have I got to lose? I'm at a new school with new people, I might as well try to make more friends.

"C'mon, Katniss! This is the perfect social event for the new girl! Make some friends, make some enemies. Just give it a try," Madge says excitedly.

I raise my eyebrows. "Do you have any idea how corny you sound?"

The blonde rolls her eyes. "Are you coming with us or not?"

I look at the people at my table. If I were to go to the rally, it's not like I'd be a loner by myself. I'd have them to hang out with. It shouldn't be so bad. I don't exactly enjoy watching cheerleaders, but . . . . it is a new school. Even though I don't like people too much, I might as well go. I have nothing to lose, right?

"Fine," I say. "I'll go."

**How was it? Too cliché-y? Please R&R, it would help me a lot with my decision on continuing this story or not. If you have any ideas for future chapters or whatever, feel free to let me know. For those of you who read my "Raised to Fight, Born to Die" story, I'll be updating that as soon as I can. Thanks for reading **


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